By AgGrad
The podcast currently has 94 episodes available.
Voted most likely to never leave her hometown, Jordan Bonham Rasmussen was in love with the small town feel of the town that she grew up in in southwest Ohio. It caught everyone, including herself, by surprise, when she got the bug to challenge herself, step outside of her comfort zone, and for an internship, travel to a new place: Albion, Nebraska.
Receiving a bachelor's degree in agriculture communications from Ohio State University, it was a grain marketing class in her agricultural business minor that first sparked her interest in the excitingly competitive and ever-changing world of grain marketing. Getting what she calls a “wild-hair” in college, she told a recruiter for a chemical company that she wanted to go to Oklahoma or Kansas.
However, his only open opportunity was in a small town in northeast Nebraska, called Albion. She loved it so much that she accepted another internship there with Cargill, then accepted a training position after college, and now lives and works there full time.
The Perks of InternshipsWanting something different, Jordan took the internship in Nebraska and packed up her Pontiac G6 and drove to live somewhere she had never been before, where she knew no one and worked for people she hadn’t even met. Even to this day, she realizes how crazy that sounds, but she also can’t imagine where her life today, as a Grain Marketer for Cargill, would be.
“When you are in college, it’s the perfect time to try those things and push yourself beyond those limits,” says Jordan. “It was something that I was questioning, and I wondered what life would be like out of Ohio - you never know, unless you try!”
Capitalizing on Collegiate OpportunitiesOriginally terrified to go anywhere other than where she currently was, Jordan told herself that “if you want to know anything else than what you currently know, learn new perspectives, see how other people think or what you do but do differently... you have to go elsewhere.”
Jordan laid the groundwork to be comfortable accepting such an exciting and slightly terrifying change in relocating for a few months for her internship was by immediately getting herself involved in organizations in college. Starting off, she was involved in two or three for a semester and then, as she got a handle on those, she found other groups to join that had some interest to her. Whether it’s a club, an organization or a study abroad program, you can figure out how to make it work.
“There were plenty of times that I hit a breaking point,” Jordan admits. “I knew that I had reached my max capacity and that I needed to reel it back in and focus on what truly mattered.”
Jordan finds it can be hard to explain to friends and family what exactly she does as a grain marketer, as she is sometimes selling a product to buy. For example, she is selling a contract and through that contract, she is buying that farmer's corn, which can be hard to wrap your head around if you’re just starting out.
“You have the futures aspect and the basis aspect,” explains Jordan. You have to sit down with your grower and figure out if the grower is the type to really understand technical aspects and their correlation or lack thereof, or if they’re simply thinking of the cash-price at the end of the day. Then you have to determine the best way to serve them.
In normal years, Jordan buys corn for Cargill that then sends through a conveyor to nearby Valero. Valero then processes the corn into the final commodity of ethanol. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the ethanol market in such a way that they actually turned into a shipper of corn utilizing the nearby Union Pacific Railroad to send the corn to California for chicken arms.
“I was very much in the flow of buying for an ethanol market...
David Chan is currently the Chief Operating Officer of FarmTogether - a technology-enabled farmland investment platform that provides investors with direct access to farmland as an asset class. With a diverse team under its name and over 70 years of combined experience in agribusiness, investments, and climatology, they carefully curate farmland properties that they themselves would invest in for their investors. Farm land is an asset class that is uncorrelated with other major asset classes making it unique.
As uncertain as 2020 has been, being a new startup has enabled FarmTogether to be agile and nimble, already accustomed to working remote and navigating with the times. David’s primary role as the COO is to serve as a thought partner and support to CEO and solo-founder Artem Milinchuk. Located on opposite coasts, they are able to connect with hotspots on each coast to advance FarmTogether’s network.
The COO is also required to be a Jack-of-all-trades and David’s tasks include a little bit of everything, such as:
“Given these unprecedented and trying times [during the novel-coronavirus pandemic], I can’t imagine operating a growing business alone in this environment,” says David about the close-knit team culture of FarmTogether. “It’s extremely daunting and very lonely. I think it’s great that we have a great team that works together and that we see each other as equal partners.”
If you are interested in learning more about farmland and agtech investing, check out the free resources on www.FarmTogether.com. As the business continues to grow and expand with the growing carbon efforts, their team will also grow and expand. Careers and opportunities are listed on their website.
Make sure to subscribe to the AgGrad YouTube Channel to learn more about career opportunities in agriculture and follow along on the special “30 Under 30 in Agriculture” series! Interested in nominating someone under 30? Nominate them here!
Not only is there a large disconnect from the average American to animal agriculture, there is actually a perceptible growing negative sentiment towards animal agriculture. Most people don't have much interaction with food outside of ordering it at a restaurant or removing it from a grocery store shelf. This growing distance in generations between conventional animal agriculture and the average consumer continues to broaden.
Even though farmers and ranchers can be frustrated over the unawareness of the average consumer, the consumer is not to blame. The problem is a very small but loud percentage of the population that doesn’t believe that animal agriculture should be done, that there is no way to responsibly raise animals for production, and that no amount of animal welfare policy could ever be enough, use fear-mongering and the spread of misinformation to widen that gap even more.
Hannah Thompson-Weeman is the Vice President of Strategic Engagement for the Animal Agriculture Alliance (Alliance). A non-profit created to bridge the communication between the farm and fork, she works with influencers like the media, dietitians, restaurants, and retail groups to answer questions about animal agriculture. With an undergraduate degree and a masters both in agricultural communications, Hannah is no stranger to the communication strategies and tactics necessary to help the Alliance’s members communicate effectively on animal agriculture.
The purpose of the Alliance is to influence the influencers. By not focusing on the difficult and often expensive audience of the end consumer, Hannah finds the people, companies, and organizations that are the gatekeepers of information about food and agriculture.
“We try not to spread ourselves too thin,” says Hannah about the Alliance’s small team of five. “We spend our time with the groups that are turning around and influencing bigger [spheres].”
“We aren’t here to tell you to eat more meat or encourage consumption of one protein or animal by-product over the other,” says Hannah. “You can make your own food choices and those can be made on your own values and budget.”
What Hannah’s team wants to ensure is that the facts made by those with influence is based on facts, not fear and misinformation. It’s oftentimes forgotten that the term vegan is not synonymous with activist, and that even those who personally choose not to eat animal by-products don’t have to be against animal agriculture.
Hannah believes in radical transparency and that, if animal agriculture practices are scientifically sound, veterinarian-supported, and necessary for animal care and food safety, then we should all be comfortable talking about them. We must identify the areas of concerns that make people ask questions that we are hesitant to talk about. If we can’t explain that, then we need to take a hard look and think about why we do that in that way. If we can’t stand in front of an audience and talk about it, then maybe we need to change it.
It’s better to come from a place of engagement versus a place of defense. When you comment, react or share a negative post about animal agriculture you are simply playing into the hands of those that want animal agriculture gone and pushing their post in the social media algorithm. This applies even if you share the post with your own commentary.
Hannah’s advice is to write your own response or post a...
“What is neat about ag engineering is that every sector of agriculture needs an engineer - I could talk [for hours] about the opportunities in ag engineering,” says Alacyn.
Attracted to the amazing complexities of ag equipment in high school, it wasn’t until her junior year of college that Alacyn was able to dig into the specific courses in machine systems with coursework involving the study of hydraulic systems, the science behind motion and movement, dynamics and technical details. Through the first few years of her undergraduate, she joined other future ag engineers in learning about the diverse world of ag engineering that included soil conservation, designing equipment and livestock management.
After her sophomore year of college, Alacyn accepted an internship at John Deere where they placed her in manufacturing engineering at the factory where they make combines. An amazing opportunity, Alacyn had never been in a factory before and now found her office situated in the middle of a factory floor where she got to see all of the moving parts of engineering and building equipment every day from her desk.
“I loved working closely with the equipment, but what I was lacking was the relationships with the customers,” says Alacyn. “Our meetings were constantly about making a quality product, there weren't people talking to technicians, farmers and dealers [in our direct space]. I didn’t love not seeing and working with the customer.”
In a bold move, at her exit presentation, Alacyn said, “If I get the chance to come back, I would like to work with customers.” Not only did they bring her back, but they listened and the following summer she accepted an internship that gave her that opportunity.
Alacyn believes that there are many skills she has learned through her agricultural engineering degree that has served her well in her career even though she’s not an active engineer at John Deere. It’s allowed her the capacity to be systematic, detail oriented, and focused on solving problems - all while being able to communicate results and data in a way that can be understood by customers, dealers, and peers alike.
Make sure to subscribe to the AgGrad YouTube Channel to learn more about career opportunities in agriculture and follow along on the special “30 Under 30 in Agriculture” series! Interested in nominating someone under 30? Nominate them here!
Garrett Lister didn’t grow up in the traditional agricultural family lifestyle but his father was a high school ag teacher and, through that, Garrett found himself involved in 4-H and FFA. Attending college at Kansas State University, he figured he would start his degree in the world of Agricultural Economics, assuming that he would transfer to another direction when he discovered that passion.
Garret finds himself rotating between two different roles in his current position of cattle risk management for Innovative Livestock Services. One one end, he works at the hedge desk. Hedging based on risk and Garrett’s job is to deal with, primarily, price-risk. In hedging, you try to put yourself in a position that protects you from a negative market drop. If the market goes up, you don’t make as much but, if it goes down, you don’t lose as much.
By placing hedges, they are able to focus on the important aspects of raising cattle such as care of cattle, good herd health, cattle growth, and the production of a great product that packers will pay a premium for.
“We are there to take some of those swings in prices out of the equation, and let the producers focus on doing production to the best of their ability because it will directly drive their bottom line,” says Garrett.
When Garrett is working at the hedge desk, he is running the bid sheet and having conversation with buyers to execute strategy of what they are thinking in regards to the cattle and averages. Plugging in numbers, he is able to get values to make the snap decisions on if the cattle are worth the risk.
“Ultimately, a very good reason to manage risk that you know about ahead of time is that there is a lot of risk that you don’t know about, and, when they reveal themselves, you want to be able to give them your full attention,” says Garrett.
Being hedged and having that price risk taken care and a disciplined strategy for their business has allowed Innovative Livestock Services in 2020 to focus on the turbulent times that the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on the cattle markets. Through their structure, they were able to quickly think about the supply chain, market cattle, and focus on changes into the production inputs for cattle. It also required cost-analysis on the risk of leaving pens empty or purchasing cattle to fill those pens.
Post college, Garrett read a book called Grit by Angela Duckworth and found truth in her words about fostering passion. Garrett believes that passion is not something that can always be found through self-reflection or introspectively, but is something that you can discover through curiosity. Asking questions and realizing what topics or interests spark more questions is a great way to discover your passion. Be curious and you’ll find a passion to follow.
Make sure to subscribe to the AgGrad YouTube Channel to learn more about career opportunities in agriculture and follow along on the special “30 Under 30 in Agriculture” series! Interested in nominating someone under 30? Nominate them here!
Tyler Nuss wears many hats in his day to day life but, whether it’s working his day job in supply chain and operation for Rivian, an electric car startup, or being an advocate for sustainable agriculture - he’s on a mission to change the world. Co-founding the podcast the Modern Acre with his brother Tim. Tyler’s goal was to provide a community about innovation in food and ag business. Indirectly, it has built Tyler and Tim’s relationship with their family farm, allowed them to consult on other farms, and continue to broaden their horizons and, subsequently, the opportunities of Nuss Farms.
The mission of The Modern Acre was to inspire other entrepreneurial and like-minded people in agriculture with their podcast, making a cross-pollination of people on the farm, farmers that were innovating and doing different things from the “normal” systems, and business leaders in the world of food and ag.
“We both knew very early on that this was a long-term vision and that we saw the value in building an audience, building great content, and putting it out in the world,” says Tyler. Despite the original plan to make a “Bigger Pockets” concept, the show morphed on it’s own as they focused not on monetary gain, but on putting good content out for two years.
With good content creation comes amazing opportunities, which the Nuss Family Farm has begun to see as an indirect result of the Modern Acre podcast. While the most common form of podcast monetization is sponsorships and advertisements, Nuss Farms has been able to partner with new business model opportunities and then promote them through the podcast.
At a minimum, Tyler says that these opportunities have been extremely fruitful as just recently, their sustainable vegetable farm has partnered with Pasturebird. Pasturebird is an affiliate program that they have incorporated and, while it may seem like an untraditional concept, it provides a unique multi-faceted opportunity for their farm.
Find your niche and what makes you different - then lean into that! Both Tyler and Tim have built careers off of the farm, Tyler in technology and Tim in import/export of produce. Finding what makes them unique makes it interesting - no matter what. For example: Tyler talking about farming is okay; Tyler who is a fifth generation farmer talking about farming is more interesting; Tyler, a fifth generation farmer involved in the building of electric pickups talking about farming is very interesting!
If it wasn’t for the podcast, Tyler doesn’t believe that neither himself nor Tim would be as engaged in the farm as they would have been without Modern Acre. As they learned more information and chatting with more industry professionals, they found themselves routinely going back to the farm to have open conversations with their brother and father about the operation. They have also found themselves having consulting conversations with others in agriculture, specifically those looking to diversify their farm and move into a more sustainable or regenerative farming aspect.
Make sure to subscribe to the AgGrad YouTube Channel to learn more about career opportunities in agriculture and follow along on the special “30 Under 30 in Agriculture” series! Interested in nominating someone under 30? Nominate them here!
Originally, Peter Bachmann wanted to be a large animal veterinarian but, within just a week on campus, he realized that wasn’t where he wanted his career to go! But he always knew he wanted to be involved in agriculture and by never letting what he thought was his dream get in the way of his destination, he has become a monumental force for agriculture in Washington, D.C..
Taking a variety of internships that ranged from dairy science to sow farms, Peter took a different direction when he accepted an internship with CropLife America, as Barb Glenn’s intern. In an internship whiplash, he moved from large animal agriculture to the regulatory pesticide industry and he was hooked.
After graduation, he found a job with the National Association of Conservation Districts, and knew that it was his first big step into agriculture in Washington, D.C., by way of conservation. Once he had his feet under him in that role, he took a position at the USA Rice Federation as the Manager of Government Affairs.
Then President Trump won the election in 2016 and, despite being politically unattached, he took an opportunity as a policy advisor with the USDA. After a year that changed again and he became the Senior Advisor to the secretary, a critical part of the infrastructure, Peter was relied on and a trusted advisor with his insights into “the swamp,” or the navigation of the Hill and Congress.
After remaining in that position for a number of years, USA Rice reached out to see if he would be interested in the Vice President of International Trade Policy. At that point in his career, he was at a position in the USDA that didn’t have much room left for growth and was feeling burnt out. USA Rice provided an opportunity to jump back “into the weeds” and have long term opportunities.
Peter stresses that one of the most important parts about working in Washington, D.C., is that you have to network, build relationships and then nurture those relationships. Washington, D.C., specifically the ag sector, is very small and you never know when those relationships will come in handy. Everyone in agriculture knows someone, whether its from 4-H, FFA, AGR fraternity, AGA, or any other state or local organization.
Building that network of friends, you start to meet the older generations in their industries as well through events, conferences, and, even, weddings. Peter says to “be patient, make friends, and say yes to all opportunities. Even if you want to go home and relax … you have to say yes initially to get out and meet those folks.”
At the end of the day, it’s about building goodwill. A part of that is Peter’s recommendation to take advice from everyone - albeit with a grain of rice! Don’t be afraid to show up in person and fight for your spot in Washington, D.C., if that is truly what you want to do!
Make sure to subscribe to the AgGrad YouTube Channel to learn more about career opportunities in agriculture and follow along on the special “30 Under 30 in Agriculture” series! Interested in nominating someone under 30? Nominate them here!
Not only did Ellie Symes start her master’s degree program the same year that she was finishing her undergraduate degree at Indiana University, she also pioneered an ag start-up all about bees and agriculture’s pollination processes. Constantly moving throughout her childhood, Ellie has found a home in Indiana where she and her co-founder, Wyatt, continue to build research, relationships, and processes to solve the problem of accuracy in pollinator counts, specifically for almond orchardists.
The official product of The Bee Corp, Verifly utilizes the research Ellie and her team have done on beekeeping, pollination and beehives through infrared cameras. Not the first product that they have created, it’s their current staple product, and utilizes infrared cameras at nights to create a snapshot of the hive's health.
The reason why sensors are helpful to understand beehives is because bees are their own heating and cooling system for their home. They control a lot of other factors in the hive in order to incubate their eggs. All of this can be monitored by sensors versus the usual method of manual inspection that requires the hives to be opened.
Choosing to be in a Benefit Corporation in the very first meeting, held in an audience with the same professionals that had encouraged them to dream bigger, Wyatt and Ellie built their business model. One of the board members who was formerly a lawyer, encouraged them to look at the difference between private, non-profit and B Corp.
“[B Corp] sounded like the best marriage of our value as founders in doing well, while also fitting well in what we were trying to create with a business model,” says Ellie. Using the B Corp outline has helped The Bee Corp structure the company culture and their strong values around how their products won’t just benefit their business but the industry as a whole.
Make sure to subscribe to the AgGrad YouTube Channel to learn more about career opportunities in agriculture and follow along on the special “30 Under 30 in Agriculture” series! Interested in nominating someone under 30? Nominate them here!
Through his involvement in extracurricular events provided by his local California Farm Bureau chapter, Zane Peterson was able to be a part of logging industry conversations that provided him with the opportunity for legislative involvement that would shape his future career. A young forester, Zane’s parents were involved in the California timber industry via the operation of saw mills and power plants. While an industry that he had always been involved in, Zane is paving his own way in the timber industry today!
Most loggers want trees that are 10” in diameter and up while Zane is dealing with trees that are 10” in diameter and down. Chipping is the stuff that “no one wants to do” because it’s harder, costs more, and is less efficient. Zane has used his resources and education to make chipping efficient and, as a result, has very few competitors. Asking the veteran’s what they would have done differently and blending those responses with the opportunity in front of him, he was able to set himself for success.
Hiring skilled labor has been one of the biggest challenges for Zane, whose goal is to not pirate employees from fellow loggers. Zane’s team uses the most efficient and most comfortable equipment, which, as a result, allows him to hire the best of the best in the industry.
“A lot of people think of entrepreneurs that throw risk to the wind but you have to have very calculated risk,” says Zane, who believes that being calculated in everything that you do is a great advantage.
In order to not steal top caliber laborers from his friends in the industry, Zane is involved with Shasta College where, upon graduation, he went back to develop a school specifically for heavy equipment operators. From hands on training experience with field trips to his operation, students get a hands on opportunity to learn more about operating the heavy equipment required in logging.
“We have a lot of awesome employees now that wouldn’t have if that program hadn’t been available,” says Zane.
Zane firmly believes that community colleges are underrated as they provide useful, practical and career-focused courses and opportunities.
Make sure to subscribe to the AgGrad YouTube Channel to learn more about career opportunities in agriculture and follow along on the special “30 Under 30 in Agriculture” series! Interested in nominating someone under 30? Nominate them here!
A native of western Canada, Rosie Thoni had always grown up around agriculture and had been heavily involved in 4-H and junior cattle associations. Despite her love for Canada and the nearby, world-famous Calgary Stampede, Rosie knew that she was going to have to take a chance to follow her passion of being an agricultural communicator. A passion that was recognized by her father when she was very young as she would write junior members’ agriculture stories on their auction bid cards.
Work at agencies like AdFarm is diverse and can include strategic planning, account services, project management, creative, media planning, public relations, content creation & management, marketing automation and customer relationship management, marketing perspective, production research, search strategy, and web development.
“I thought I wanted to be more of a generalist, maybe an association job,” says Rosie about what direction college-Rosie would have thought her career would head. “While I think that’s still an excellent career choice, what I discounted is that I would get to do all of those different [career aspects] but I would have subject matter experts and highly trained individuals at my fingertips.”
Rosie’s prediction is that agency life will move towards specialist freelancers that can help on specific projects within industries and she encourages agricultural communication students and graduates to find their specialization, hone it, and broadcast it. For example, Rosie was interested in public relations and, while OSU didn’t have specializations at that time, she stated that she was a specialist in writing and built her resume through college on freelance writing.
Make sure to subscribe to the AgGrad YouTube Channel to learn more about career opportunities in agriculture and follow along on the special “30 Under 30 in Agriculture” series! Interested in nominating someone under 30? Nominate them here!
The podcast currently has 94 episodes available.